Mykhailo Farmiga: The Quiet Father Behind Vera and Taissa Farmiga
Most people first hear the name Mykhailo Farmiga because of his daughters. Vera Farmiga has carried films such as The Departed and Up in the Air, led the Conjuring series as Lorraine Warren, and directed her own feature. Taissa Farmiga, the youngest of the family, has built a strong following of her own through American Horror Story, The Final Girls and The Nun. Behind both of them stands a father who never chased the spotlight and never tried to turn his family name into a brand. For readers who enjoy family stories like these, our biography stories often begin in the same place: not on a red carpet, but at home, around a kitchen table, in a language spoken long before English.
Mykhailo Farmiga was a Ukrainian immigrant who worked first as a computer systems analyst and later as a landscaper. He and his wife, Lubomyra “Luba” Farmiga, raised seven children in New Jersey and kept Ukrainian language, food, faith and tradition at the centre of family life. Vera has described herself as fully Ukrainian-American, and she did not learn English until she started kindergarten at the age of six. That detail says a lot about the home her father built. It was Ukrainian first, American second, and proud of both.
This article looks at what is actually known about him, and where the stories about him start to disagree. His daughters have spoken about their upbringing in interviews and profiles, and those accounts give us the firmest ground. Much of the rest comes from biography sites that repeat each other without naming a first-hand source.
Quick Facts
- Full name: Mykhailo Farmiga, also written as Michael Farmiga in English-language sources
- Known for: Father of actresses Vera Farmiga and Taissa Farmiga
- Wife: Lubomyra “Luba” Farmiga (née Spas), a schoolteacher
- Children: Seven — Victor, Vera, Stephan, Nadia, Alexander, Laryssa and Taissa
- Work: Former computer systems analyst, later a landscaper
- Heritage: Ukrainian
- Home: Irvington, then Whitehouse Station, New Jersey
- Birth date: Widely reported as 10 January 1942, but not confirmed by a major reliable source
- Net worth: Not publicly disclosed; figures quoted online are unverified
- Public profile: Private; no confirmed social media presence or public interviews
Who Is Mykhailo Farmiga?
Mykhailo Farmiga is the Ukrainian-born father of Vera and Taissa Farmiga. He worked outside the entertainment industry for his whole working life, first in computing and then in landscaping, and he raised a large family with his wife Luba in New Jersey. He did not act, direct, manage talent or work in film production, as far as any reliable account shows. His public recognition comes entirely through his daughters.
That shapes everything else we know about him. There are no press interviews in his name, no memoir, and no social media account that can be tied to him with confidence. What we have instead is a family story told mainly through Vera, the second of his seven children, and through Taissa, the youngest. In Ukrainian his name is Mykhailo; in English-language profiles of Vera he is often called Michael Farmiga. Both forms point to the same man.
Early Life in Ukraine
Mykhailo Farmiga was born in Ukraine, and most biography sites give the year as 1942, many giving the exact date as 10 January 1942. That date is repeated so often that it can look settled, but it is not. No major newspaper, broadcaster or reference work has confirmed it, and at least one careful recent profile notes that it is not consistently confirmed. The honest position is to call it widely reported rather than proven.
If the year is right, he was born in the middle of the Second World War, in a country that was occupied, fought over and devastated. Vera’s maternal grandparents met at a displaced persons camp in Karlsfeld, Germany, during the war. That helps explain why Ukrainian identity ran so deep in the Farmiga home decades later in New Jersey.
A New Life in New Jersey
Mykhailo Farmiga and his family settled in New Jersey, and the two place names that matter most in Vera’s story are Irvington and Whitehouse Station. Vera was born on 6 August 1973 in Clifton, New Jersey, and she grew up in Irvington, in a close Ukrainian-American community. Ukrainian was her first language, and she did not learn English until kindergarten at six. Vera attended St John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic School in Newark and toured as a teenager with a Ukrainian folk-dancing group called Syzokryli.
When Vera was twelve, the family moved from Irvington to Whitehouse Station. Taissa, the youngest child, was born on 17 August 1994, more than two decades after Vera, and she grew up there. The gap between the two sisters is so large that some readers assume they must have different parents. They do not. They are full sisters, born twenty-one years apart in a family of seven.
From Systems Analyst to Landscaper
The one description of his working life that appears in every serious account is short and consistent: systems analyst-turned-landscaper. Vera’s own biography uses that exact phrase, and other established profiles repeat it. Mykhailo Farmiga first worked as a computer systems analyst, a job that called for logic, patience and attention to detail, and later he moved into landscaping. The change is often described as a deliberate choice rather than a fallback. Computing paid the bills and used his head. Landscaping used his hands, kept him outside, and gave him work he could see at the end of the day. A garden either grows or it does not. There is no audience to impress and no review to wait for.
No reliable source names his employer, his qualifications, the year he changed careers, or the size of any landscaping business he may have run. Any article that gives them as fact is guessing, or copying a guess from another site. He earned a living from ordinary work, first at a desk and then outdoors, and he did not build a public fortune from it.
Marriage to Luba Farmiga
Mykhailo Farmiga is married to Lubomyra “Luba” Farmiga, née Spas, a schoolteacher. The marriage has lasted for decades, and the couple are described in family profiles as having been together for more than forty years. Luba’s parents were Nadia Spas (1925–2014) and Theodor Spas (1921–1990), and they met at a displaced persons camp in Karlsfeld during the Second World War. She passed that sense of heritage on to her children along with the language.
Luba worked as a teacher while raising seven children. A household of nine, with Ukrainian spoken at home, school runs, church, folk dancing and two careers to hold down, leaves little room for glamour. The picture from Vera’s accounts is of a partnership: he worked, she taught, and together they kept a large family fed, schooled and rooted in a culture that was not the one outside the front door. No wedding date has been confirmed in a reliable source.
Seven Children
Mykhailo Farmiga and Luba had seven children: three sons and four daughters. In birth order, as far as the sources allow us to place them, they are Victor, Vera, Stephan, Nadia, Alexander, Laryssa and Taissa. Victor is the eldest. Vera, born in 1973, is the second child. Taissa, born in 1994, is the youngest. The five children between them have stayed almost entirely out of the public eye, and their birth dates have not been confirmed in reliable sources. Some sites give years for them, but those years clash with each other, so they are left out here.
Vera Farmiga
Vera is the child who made the family name known around the world. Born Vera Ann Farmiga on 6 August 1973, she began acting in the late 1990s and built a career that covers stage, film and television. Her work in The Departed in 2006 put her firmly on the map. Her performance in Up in the Air in 2009 brought her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and her portrayal of Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring films made her a familiar face to a whole new audience. On television she led Bates Motel and later Five Days at Memorial. Her directorial debut, Higher Ground, released in 2011, was a quiet film about faith and community, and it gave her younger sister Taissa her first acting role.
Taissa Farmiga
Taissa is the youngest of the seven, born on 17 August 1994 in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. She was still a teenager when Vera cast her in Higher Ground, and she has said that she had not planned on acting before that. The role came through family, not through an audition circuit, and it set her on a path she then made her own. She became a regular face in American Horror Story, and she led The Nun and its sequel as Sister Irene. She has also worked in smaller films such as The Final Girls and 6 Years, and, like Vera, she has kept her private life largely private. She married screenwriter and director Hadley Klein in 2020, in a small ceremony at home.
The age gap between the sisters — Vera was twenty-one when Taissa was born — has fuelled the mistaken idea that they are half-sisters. They do not share different parents. They share both parents, and the gap is simply what happens in a large family spread over more than two decades.
The Other Five Children
The other five children of Mykhailo Farmiga have chosen private lives, and that choice deserves respect. They are not public figures, and there is no reliable public record of their careers, partners or children. Some biography sites fill the gap with invented detail. This article does not. What can be said is that they grew up in the same Ukrainian-speaking home and shared the same parents. Beyond that, their stories are theirs to tell, not ours to guess at.
Grandchildren and Family Life Today
Through Vera, Mykhailo Farmiga is a grandfather. Vera married musician Renn Hawkey in 2008, and the couple have two children: a son, Fynn, born in January 2009, and a daughter, Gytta Lubov Hawkey, born in November 2010. Those two are the only grandchildren named in reliable sources.
As for where Mykhailo Farmiga lives now, the honest answer is that it is not publicly known. Some sites describe him as retired and living with Luba, but that is not confirmed by a named source. He has never given an interview about his retirement or daily life, and a private man who raised a public family is allowed to stay private.
Common Confusions
Because he is a private man known mainly through his famous daughters, several mix-ups appear again and again online, and they are worth clearing up in one place.
Is he Vera Farmiga’s father, or Taissa Farmiga’s father? He is both. Vera and Taissa are full sisters, daughters of Mykhailo Farmiga and Lubomyra Farmiga. The twenty-one-year age gap between them leads some readers to assume different parents, but the sources are clear on this point.
Is his name Michael or Mykhailo? Both. Mykhailo is the Ukrainian form. Michael is the English form used in many profiles of Vera, including her own biography, which calls him Michael Farmiga, a systems analyst-turned-landscaper. They are the same person, not a father and an uncle.
Was he born on 10 January 1942? That date is widely reported, and the year 1942 is given by almost every biography site that covers him. Even so, no major reliable source has confirmed the exact date, and careful recent profiles flag it as unconfirmed. Treat it as reported, not proven. If the year is right, he would be in his mid-eighties in 2026, but that calculation rests on an unconfirmed date.
Is his net worth $2 to $3 million? That figure appears on many low-quality biography sites, usually without a source, and it varies from site to site: $2–3 million in most, $1–3 million in one, around $500,000 in another. No reputable financial source supports any of these numbers, and his exact net worth is not publicly disclosed. The same goes for his height, most often given as 5 feet 10 inches, and sometimes as 5 feet 5 inches instead. With no reliable source, height and weight are left as unverified.
Is he an actor, a producer or a talent manager? No. There is no dependable evidence that he worked in acting, film production, talent management or any other entertainment role. His working life was in systems analysis and landscaping, and he is not credited on his daughters’ films.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Mykhailo Farmiga?
Mykhailo Farmiga is a Ukrainian-American former computer systems analyst and landscaper, best known as the father of actresses Vera Farmiga and Taissa Farmiga. He raised seven children with his wife Luba in New Jersey, in a home where Ukrainian was the first language.
Is Mykhailo Farmiga Vera Farmiga’s father?
Yes. Mykhailo Farmiga is the father of Vera Farmiga, born Vera Ann Farmiga on 6 August 1973 in Clifton, New Jersey. Vera is the second of his seven children, and her biography names him as a systems analyst-turned-landscaper.
Is Mykhailo Farmiga Taissa Farmiga’s father?
Yes. Mykhailo Farmiga is also the father of Taissa Farmiga, the youngest of his seven children, born on 17 August 1994. Vera and Taissa are full sisters, despite the twenty-one-year age gap between them.
Who is Mykhailo Farmiga’s wife?
Mykhailo Farmiga’s wife is Lubomyra “Luba” Farmiga, née Spas, a schoolteacher. The couple have been married for decades and raised seven children together in New Jersey. Luba’s parents, Nadia and Theodor Spas, met at a displaced persons camp in Karlsfeld during the Second World War.
How many children does Mykhailo Farmiga have?
Mykhailo Farmiga has seven children with Luba: three sons, Victor, Stephan and Alexander, and four daughters, Vera, Nadia, Laryssa and Taissa. Victor is the eldest, Vera is second, and Taissa is the youngest.
What did Mykhailo Farmiga do for a living?
Mykhailo Farmiga first worked as a computer systems analyst and later became a landscaper. That career change is the one detail of his working life confirmed in the established profiles of his daughter Vera. No employer, qualification or business detail has been reliably published.
What is Mykhailo Farmiga’s net worth?
His exact net worth is not publicly disclosed. Figures of $2 to $3 million appear on many biography sites, but they are unverified, they vary from site to site, and no reputable financial source supports them. This article does not present an estimate as fact.
Conclusion
Mykhailo Farmiga never asked to be known, and that is part of why his story reads the way it does: short on records, long on family. Mykhailo Farmiga was a Ukrainian immigrant who worked first with computers and then with the land, married a schoolteacher named Luba, and raised seven children in New Jersey in a home where Ukrainian came first. Two of those children, Vera and Taissa, went on to become actresses known around the world. The other five chose private lives. What holds the story together is not fame, but the ordinary, steady work of a father who kept his family rooted in where they came from while giving them room to go where they wanted. Readers looking for more background on the family can turn to a general reference for Vera’s life and career, where her father’s role is set out in the same terms used here.
